I Don’t Know What to Do With My Life- and It’s Okay Not to

Have you ever tried to imagine a life where we would all wake up to bacon sandwiches and fried sausages? You wake up in the morning from some chalet within a vast compound and head to the refined balconies to bask in the glorious morning sun.

I mean the kind of life where you are treated to buttered bread and eggs in the morning. In the afternoon, you take a stroll along the beach, soaking in the cool breeze as you eat those milky ice creams. How would it feel, taking a summer tour to Dubai every year, and sampling the amazing architecture as you get drenched in the therapeutic sun along the vast beaches?

In a nutshell, I am talking of that life where we all throw responsibilities out of the window and become free souls. The kind of life where we have nothing bothering our minds and everything go on as we plan and wish for. Does such a life exist in the first place?

There Are Always Rough Patches- but Adjust to Them

You see, life is not about sampling bars of chocolate and having them for dinner. It can sometimes get harsh and unbearable. Occasionally we are driven into a state of destitute such that we can’t even afford bus fares to work. Or still, financial crises stealthily crawls into our sitting rooms and calmly takes a seat just at the corner of our neatly done rooms.

Yet sometimes, we are blessed with those huge cars, loads of money, and a rather caring family. We can tour world destinations of our choice, hopping from one country to the other. At that moment, you are living most people’s dreams, and you are like- this is the kind of life I want to have for the rest of my life.

So, You Are Unsure of What to Do With Your Life?

Well, maybe you should keenly read this. One of the world’s greatest historians spent most of his life grinding and putting down history for decades. During a lecture session, one of the students asked him: “What was the most intriguing thing you learned during your years of sampling momentous historical events?”

He confidently replied, “When it gets completely dark, the stars show up.”

For me, that is the most inspiring quote of any generation. It carries with it so much voluminous wisdom and unrivaled rousing encouragement that we could spend a whole lifetime analyzing it. In your dark hours and low moments, it should be a profound source of strength and motivation. 

Nothing better happens by being annoyingly anxious. Life presents us with millions of challenges every day. What you should be doing instead of lamenting is graciously embracing the twists and try finding and doing what you enjoy.

More importantly, read below some of the proven steps and life practices that will help you find meaning out of life. Let’s keep scrolling.

1. Put Your Running Gears on and Clear Your Mind

 Let me tell you a short story about the butterfly. During my free time, I occasionally take a lazy walk along the expansive farms to get a fresh breath as I whistle along the winding paths. It is not like I do lack what to do. No, I only find it refreshing connecting with nature, and losing myself into the wild makes it even more fun.

Let’s get back to the butterfly. So this evening, I am taking my usual tour. The clouds are heavy, and the skies are threatening to open any time. Nonetheless, I am not bothered. I want to stay here for some time. I stand, soundlessly, in the field of neatly-trimmed straw as I watched a charming butterfly.

It flapped anxiously about, examining, pursuing, and searching.

Just the other day, the butterfly had found a friend in the flower. The flower had therefore, become so vital to the butterfly. It gently caressed the flower, only in a way a stunning butterfly would cuddle a charming flower.

Interestingly, this same flower had no use to the mower. The mower had found it convenient to cut it down, thus leaving it wilting in the raging noonday sun.

What exactly do we learn from this scenario? The first one. The ambitions which we so much valued yesterday meant absolutely nothing to the present mower- which is life in this scenario.

Secondly, we need to take a cue from the butterfly’s persistence. It keeps on searching and going for more charming and fresher flowers. It eventually finds other lovelier flowers. Like the determined butterfly, so must we continue seeking new challenges and grander objectives.

Just like in the realm of butterflies with plenty of flowers, so are our lives with massive opportunities and ambitions. Each goal, interestingly, offers more significant incentives than that which appeared so monumental before life pushed us down the trenches.

Life naturally keeps us on our toes- seeking new paths and skills. In doing so, it reminds us of the importance of the mower. The mower cuts down the beautiful flowers. Unknowingly to him, his actions make the butterfly more aggressive and determined to land new and charming flowers.

2. Nobody Will Take Responsibility for Your Life

Is it not true that every ostrich which tries to bury their head in the sand does make an irresistible target for a paddle? After all, for how long is it going to assume the danger before it is finally cornered? In life, we have, unfortunately, people who act like ostriches. Too bad if you are one of such kind.

Do you know what they do? Just like the naïve ostriches, they also kneel down to hide their heads in the sands of illusoriness. Each time we immerse our heads in the abundant and deep waters of unreality, we become an easy target for the paddle of destiny.

We are not going to solve our problems by always assuming the challenges and consoling ourselves; they will go away. They are not. Actually, without any positive affirmation, you will wake from your disillusioned sleep and realize the problems are even bigger than you thought.

Here is What to Do if You Get Stuck in the Middle of a Challenge

One exciting yet so irritating fact about life is that it remains unpredictable. Most of the time, all our questions, we so casually and grudgingly throw at life, do not always come back pleasantly wrapped. In fact, life itself doesn’t come with a manual. We need to diligently and consistently work hard to define unique paths for each one of us.

One major step towards finding out what you need to put right in your life is by activating your conscious mind. Wake up your conscious and start cuddling the change and unpredictability that is life. Your conscious mind should, in a way, implant and relay beneficial suggestions to the subconscious mind. That in itself is an accepted form of therapy that should help you with taking your current situation as it is.

Get to deal comprehensively with the habit of limiting your capabilities and self-beliefs. What you need to do is to act with bold confidence. Act in the full knowledge that whatever is conceived in the mind of any man can be achieved by the man. To this end, avoid seeking the simple route of ostrich cure. Instead, boldly face head-on the specific cause or problem to conquer a particular struggle.

It is difficult and challenging overcoming your fears and the limits to your self-beliefs. Nonetheless, it will only take your initiative to seek change, and your life will bring another dimension.

3. Embrace the Power of Initiating Little Strides With a Specific Period Challenge

Those minimal, negligible, and small efforts we make every day gradually become our powerful habits. They become habits that go on to define our destiny. We have been told many times, and we all know that it doesn’t help to despise our humble beginnings.

At least, we all have a starting point. What is, however, more important is the amount of effort we put towards achieving our set out goals. Nonetheless, the challenge here remains setting a challenge and working within a stipulated time to accomplish your goals.

Let us say you set a 20 days challenge. Within these 20 days, sit down and carefully identify what you need to do that can revitalize your energy. Once you are done, you need to frame out how you are going to diligently and passionately follow up on your program.

These daily activities should give you the momentum to begin a new journey and the impetus to push harder than before. In your push to meet your targets, you should be able to identify what you specifically need to do with your life.

Maybe you are still wondering why you should take a 20 or more days challenge. Is it worth it? How does that help my sorry self and lift my deflated spirit and ego? Well, the answer lies with you. The healing process for any patient must begin with the self-actualization that they are ill and need some therapy.

By just achieving the goals within a set period, you boost your confidence and fuel further the self-belief in you to keep going. If you decide to sit and do nothing, then obviously nothing will happen. It means you would have to contend with a disquiet, dull, anxious, and hopeless life. You do not want to experience that, do you?

4. Some Have Been There Before- Seek Wisdom From Them

Experience alone is enough to teach you some of the priceless and greatest lessons this world can offer. The kind of lessons you will never get within the lecture halls of top universities. What other better way then, would it be to learn from the experience and drink from their cups of wisdom? You get to learn and sample practical life experiences from people who have walked the same path as you are.

A man’s extensive and broader knowledge in what he has gone through makes him have a higher power in knowing what to do in instances of difficulty. If you are the type that loves to read, then you should consider reading books that narrate people’s lives, their philosophies, and how they overcame various challenges in their lives.

What should the stories help you with in the end? You may ask. At times when you are unsure about what to correctly do in your life, it is these kinds of stories that should motivate and inspire you. You should be able to widen your knowledge base after reading. And we all know what power to information means.

Are you unsure of which books to lay your hands on? Worry not. You can still begin with this. It should give you a comprehensive insight on why life is never fair and ideal. Once you read it, then you should be able to gain clarity and purpose in your life.

5. Get to Know Yourself Profound Better and More

The fact of the matter is, you will always want to do the right thing in any moment of decision making. It would still be better if you do something, albeit wrong. However, the gravest mistake you can ever do is to stand there, do nothing, and say nothing.

The bottom line is, find out who exactly you are, what your aspirations are, and what you want to do with your life.

The world belongs to those who are ready to find out. Any person who can find what the problem is- and decisively deal with it- is guaranteed success in life. Nothing deflates a man’s ego and blurs his path than a life full of question marks.

Very few activities are more satisfying and encouraging than finding the answers to your questions and solutions to the problems.

The only way you will confidently move forward and leap into the future with optimism and energy is by letting go of your past. Find it within your heart to embrace change- a change that should reinvent your inner self.

Conclusion

You are not going to walk into the future by continuously planning for it. Instead, you should put more energy into working on your present. There might have been a time when social pressure nearly swept away your life. However, hold high your head and remind yourself of the childhood dreams you had and the vast ambitions you set for yourself at 18.

If I don’t know what to do with my life, I will remind myself that life itself is never stagnant, it keeps on changing, so I should do the same. There will be times when life will knock you down, and you will find it challenging to get up. However, remember that life is about learning how to get back on your feet each time you stumble.

I hope you get to find something meaningful to do with your life.